Steffen Hentrich of the German liberal institute presents a comparison of the safety of various sources of energy. Much of the media, many politicians and a host of activists have all told us that nuclear energy is too dangerous to be used by man.

Is this claim founded on solid data and facts, or is it run-away hysteria? You be the judge. Shown are the number of deaths per terawatt-hour of energy produced.

By far, probably to James Hansen’s glee, coal, with its dangerous mining work, is the most dangerous of all. Surprisingly, even hydro, wind, and solar power are far more hazardous than nuclear.

Photovoltaic power generation kills, per terawatt-hour, 11 times more people than nuclear.

Using the arguments of the anti-nuclear activists, we can say there needs to be an immediate moratorium on windmills, photovoltaic panels and biomass plants. Compared to nuclear, they’re simply too deadly.

So what does all this mean? Hentrich writes:

With this in mind, nuclear energy alone becomes the scapegoat, and this illustrates the glaring denial of reality in politics and in the public. This also shows that a rapid stop of nuclear power generation will in no way reduce the risks involved in power generation.”

Indeed, stopping nuclear power makes the power generation industry much more dangerous, and not safer.

7 responses to “Nuclear Is The Safest Form Of Energy – Opposition Is A “Glaring Denial Of Reality””

James Hansen, BTW, is on the record as being a nuclear proponent. In this case, he’s right for all the wrong reasons IMHO.

My favorite energy related danger-seeking pastime, forestry, probably would not fit in your graph… one has to cut a lot of timber to reach a TWh. Probably forestry is excluded because most of the wood is supposed to be used in construction. With the rising popularity of wood stoves and pellet heaters in Germany this is rapidly changing.

Believe it or not, the problems with the nuclear plants in Japan have prompted some of my neighbors to take Geiger counter readings and I live in the desert southwest of the US. Amazing. There is more radiation from bananas and Brazil nuts in these people’s houses.

Portugal’s government has abdicated; the prime minister could not get approval for an austerity package. Emergency EU summit is being held to inch out the details of the coming financial rescue package; Germany will contribute 22bn Euro.

Hmmm… one wonders, did Portugal miss out on the opportunity of Green Jobs? After all, they produce only 45% of their electricity in a “renewable” way…